New App Recap: August 18, 2014

'Tis the season to head back to school, and this week's New App Recap has a handful of titles to help students and teachers alike get back in the swing of things. We've even got a bit of Hollywood royalty in the lineup, along with a new app dedicated solely to the task of finding a flight to get out of town within hours of buying a ticket.

Students and teachers start back to school this week, and developers help ease the transition with Flowboard Education ($4.99, iPad), an interactive presentation tool that makes short work of book reports or science experiments. Built-in templates make it easy to get started, and importing content from a variety of cloud services makes it a snap to do anywhere. (Price goes up on Labor Day!)

What would Tom Hanks do? Thanks to Hanx Writer (free, iPad), we no longer have to ask that question. Recreating the experience of writing on a manual typewriter, the actor's first foray into mobile apps promises documents with a "unique statement-making personality," and is expandable to boot, with a variety of in-app purchases to tailor the software to your personal preference.

Personalize your TV guide and control DIRECTV or DISH Network hardware with the new Peel Smart Remote (free, iPhone). Instead of requiring costly IR blaster hardware, this app controls a set-top box, adding personalized recommendations, reminders so you never miss a favorite show, and the ability to control DVR playback from the palm of your hand — perfect for when the remote control is lost.

Sony's new Album of the Day (free, iPhone) serves up a new inexpensive album deal every 24 hours from the comfort of your smartphone, complete with pictures and track previews so you'll know exactly what you've about to purchase. All purchases are made via iTunes, so the same tracks show up on every device you own — but act quickly, because today's deal will be gone tomorrow.

Billed as Snapchat with a side of truth or dare, the aptly named SnapDare (free, iPhone) promises a fun, ad-free environment where friends can send prewritten truth questions or custom dares, adding a technological twist to challenges by documenting the resulting hilarity with a photo, video, or text reply. And yes, messages self-destruct after being viewed, for complete privacy.

Popular layout, collage, and illustration app Morpholio Board 2.0 (free, universal) now includes a gallery of curated top designs, the ability to add people or annotations, and zoom tools for working closer than ever before. Users can also now tag items, edit with a full range of options, import via web, photos, or camera, and label boards with colorful text.

Videos no longer have to be a headache to edit, thanks to Vlur (free, iPhone), a new mobile solution that promises a wider range of creative possibilities, including 40 transitions and 22 filters. Videos can be up to five minutes long (via in-app purchase), and new content can be shot and edited without ever having to leave the app, then shared straight to social networks.

Need to get out of town in a hurry? Flight Tonight (free, iPhone) will quickly find you the cheapest flights to a variety of destinations around the globe. What makes this app unique is that it only discovers flights leaving tonight or tomorrow morning, where they can be booked fee-free right from your handset. And that's a wrap for this week's column; we're off to some exotic locale....